Deja vu
by Mika Miire
Summary: Hmm, don't know what to say. X2 Spoilers, P/OC. Deja is a mutant who is captured by the Brotherhood, all in the name of mutant prospeirty of course, and looses control making her gift a curse.
1. Fire Fight

(btw, I know it's Déjà vu, but let's just say that Deja means the same thing.

Deja opened her eyes.  She tried to focus her eyes, blocking out the pain of her throbbing head.  Grey.  There was a lot of grey around her.  That's all she surmised before she groaned, falling back into her spell.

She opened her eyes again; a boy with brown hair and eyes form into her vision.  She blinked once or twice, regaining her consciousness.  She looked around at the metal room she was in, noticing that she was submerged in what looked like a scientific bathtub, even if she was fully clothed.  She turned her attention to Pyro, the boy staring right at her with relentless eyes.  "What did you do to me?" she whispered, her voice still being weak.  She struggled to sit up, but the weight of the water was unnatural and pressed her back down.

"Shhh.  You're not supposed to move that much."

            Deja, not being completely clueless, figured whatever she was in was some sort of scientific experiment.  The thought terrified her, causing her to strain against the unbearable weight, making little progress, that held in place.

"Stop," he said calmly.  "You'll mess it up."

It was like thick, watery, yet solid jello.  She cried her version of a battle cry, using all her energy to thrust her arms out of the water and cling on to either side of her tank.

            Pyro stood up, unsure of what to do as he observed the girl emerging from the tank bit by bit.  He opened his mouth to call for Magneto, but she was already half-standing.

After a moment of hesitation, his lighter was out.  "Get back, girlie," he warned, even though she took no heed.  Finally managing her knees above water, it was one more struggle and she was free.  She leapt over the side of the tank, gasping for unrestrained breath.  Deja saw in a blue haze, fire surrounding her.  But when she looked around her, she saw no fire. But as soon as Pyro had a threatening blaze in his hands, she understood and leapt out of the way just in time to avoid being caught in a ring of flame.

Before he could see, she darted behind a lab table, looking around for weapons.  "You're trying to hide?" Pyro grinned, knowing she could never.  No, she was just trying to stall.  Glancing desperately around she spotted a metal pole across the room, which had a hook attached to the end.  It looked like a giant dentist's tool.  She waited till Pyro had almost rounded on her before she shot towards the other side.  By the time he knew where she was, she had a deadly weapon and she already possessed the skill how to use it.

"A long hook…that's how you're going to beat fire?"

She ignored his taunts, waiting for him to make the first move.  She sagged under the weight of soaking wet clothes, not that she let this hinder her.  She had been trained in all environments, even underwater, and she also knew how to deal with fire.  She might not have training that taught how to fight someone who controlled fire, but she felt much more confident in herself now that she had her weapon, which she was going to use as a bo.  A bo, one of the weapons Deja was instructed with, resembled a long stick or a sword with no edge.

He grinned, sure of his victory, before he flew a sharp beam of fire at her head.  She dived.  She landed in a one-leg kneeling position, close enough to swing her bo at him, scratching his leg with the rusty hook.

Pyro let out a shout of pain, looking at his pant leg which was beginning to stain with blood. Deja did not hesitate. Still on the ground, she lunged forward, still close to the ground, twirling her bo like a baton and smacking his side with it, throwing him right into the table.  She landed another blow on his left side, just as his head turned up.  She was temporarily thrown off by the force of his enraged eyes.  Once again she felt fear enter her heart, watching him create fire in his palm.  Being stupidly scared, it took her a few seconds to react and she dodged too late, getting her arm burned.  She cried out, worried that her loss of composure was going to cost her life, just as doors opened out of the corner of her eye.

The old man who drugged her and a woman in blue, no, a blue woman, walked in casually.  "Now how did I know this was going to happen?" the older man said tiredly.

Pyro breathed heavily, regaining his energy.  "I lost control," he growled, frustrated.

"Yes," Magneto said wearily, reaching for Deja's weapon.  It flew across the air and landed in his grasp.  Deja almost protested, but she remembered she had no power here.  "Normally I would tell you 'next time, just shove her back in,'" Magneto sighed, beckoning Pyro to his side.  His pupil returned to his side, glaring at Deja.

"But?" Pyro prompted, knowing Magneto had some witty remark to rebuke him with.

"But?" Magneto snapped.  He slapped Pyro upside the head with the metal hook.  "There won't be another time."  He had finished punishing the young mutant, and now he turned to Deja.  "Come here," he said, even though she didn't have much of a choice since the ground underneath her shifted like a wave, bringing her to stand in front of him.  Magneto surveyed her lightly and determined, "Well, you're good enough."  He gestured to Mystique and he and Pyro exited.

Deja, still out of breath, looked at the blue woman who was smiling evilly, wondering what her fate was going to be.


	2. Escape

My first X2 fic-Please R&R 

Déjà vu

It was an empty courtyard in a private high-school; empty except for three girls chatting, seated on one of the picnic benches. The balcony of the second floor performed as an outside hallway for the lower classes, overlooking the area where students lounged, and then above the balcony floor were three more stories of classes and lessons.

An emptiness hung in the air, humans around from every corner, unseen in their classes learning calculus and discussing everything about Shakespeare. The three chatting girls lowered their voices as a senior walked by who was ignoring them. They eyed her resentfully, as it was the annual freshman-humiliation week.

The girl walked down the path of the courtyard, keeping on her rather mechanical routine. She beat all of her other classmates to the commons, the relaxation area, since she didn't loiter or waste time after class was dismissed. She kept her round, narrowed ended eyes on the ground, avoiding looking at anyone. People tried to judge her nationality by her eyes, but they were vague just like her blood. Most people thought it was odd she spoke with a slight Japanese accent, and spoke to herself in her native tongue.

She looked up quickly, not stopping her stride, right at the spot on the balcony that had doors which lead inside. Her eyes met a pair of brown ones; seeing a boy in a russet shirt looking straight at her. In a quick jolt of instinct she skipped forward, pulling the common's doors open.

As the doors closed, a boy in a russet shirt walked onto the balcony, searching for someone who stood out in the courtyard. He searched the grounds furtively with his eyes, but he knew the three chatting girls weren't who he was searching for. With a sigh of disappointment, he turned around and reentered the second floor.

The russet-shirt boy, Pyro, turned around and faced a middle-aged man with graying hair and a full gut. He shook his head, even though he already knew the mutant was aware of his failure.

"She's still here," the man growled. "I'll look for her on the upper grounds; look for her in the main story." The main story, the building they were currently in, had two side doors. One to the balcony, which Pyro had entered, one to the parking lot, and then additional main doors for an elaborate gateway to the outer world.

"What about the parking area?" Pyro asked, narrowing his eyes as he was still searching.

"Eric's already covering that."

John nodded, leaving to return to the balcony. He walked out onto the outside hallway; he turned into the stairs that lead him down into the commons. He heard someone stifle their footsteps. Feeling the anxious air of apprehension, he dashed down the stairs, sensing his prey was nearby.

John landed on the ground level of the school, underneath the normal height of the city. He looked back, but turned to enter the commons.

Unseen but sensed, the young senior was hiding behind a wall that lead to the cafeteria kitchens. She felt her predator walking away, and tried to calm down breath. However something held her back from quickly darting across the hallway and making her way up the stairs to safety. She felt the future bearing down on her. Being consumed with fear, she began to shake and felt terrified tears brimming on her eyes. 

After feeling the panic build up in her chest, she opened her eyes as she felt the sudden need to do so. Suddenly, John turned the corner she had been hiding behind, less than two feet away from her, his hard eyes piercing her in an instant. She shrieked, letting some of the terror out of her body. He jumped back by the shock; and startled into action, the girl knocked him out of the way and she tore up the stairs.

"Hey!"

She sprinted across the balcony, opening the door main building, but felt a hard gut block her from entering. She flew back and looked up at an older man with glaring, yellow eyes. Turning her head, she saw the russet boy running towards her. She closed her eyes in horror, feeling the older man grab her roughly and pull her up. Back on her legs, she took action again and pushed the man away; exerting the martial arts her grandmother had taught her. The man took a few powerful steps back. But before he could react she had escaped into the building and already scuttled into the parking lot. Looking back as she tried to run to her car, she bumped into something else. Once more facing what she hit, which was a man even older than the rest, she gasped before he uttered, "Why don't you calm down?"

She tried to resist as he sprayed something in her face, but it stung her eyes and closing them she inhaled heavily, feeling the immediate effect of the drugs.


	3. Connections to the Past

a/n-yeah i know, deja's one of those i-never-say-a-word types, but i'll try to open her up

            "Lo..n…up."

            Logan stirred, still caught up in his nightmare.  Then he opened his eyes, almost immediately forgetting the scenes of experimentation that replayed themselves in his mind.  He had heard a little of what the words were around him, but was still to asleep to understand any of it, or to even recognize that they were words.

            "Logan…Logan," his favorite voice said.

            "Jean?"

            Logan looked up and saw the wonderful Jean Grey, all in red, leaning over with her mesmerizing smile.  "Wake up Logan."  He smiled, somehow comforted by the sound of sweet melodic voice.  But he didn't understand what was happening when her eyes turned red and she said in a deeper voice, "Wake up."

            "Ah!"  Logan jumped up, now completely awake.  After analyzing what happened, he determined that what it was a dream.  He shut his eyes, the pain of her death once again reopening in his heart, and let out a long sigh of grief.  He ran a strong hand through his tousled hair, looking around his bare room.  There was nothing much in it, but that wasn't what bothered him.  His claws shot out from his right hand, and he brought them up to his face to examine them.  _She had Adamantium too_.

            "Logan!" a woman called.  It was the only other woman he knew around here other than…Jean.  Rogue really shouldn't be called a woman yet.  Logan's claws retracted and he got up, pulled on white T-shirt, and looked outside his room.  "Get out of those sweats," Storm smiled.  "We need to go to Northern Virginia."

            "Why?"

            "Come on, don't keep me waiting."  She turned away, smiling at his amiable frustration.

            The two didn't say much on the X-Jet.  Once and a while Storm would state the condition of the jet, but she knew not to bug him.  He was off somewhere, thinking.

            "I had another dream," he said softly as they were about to land.

            Storm looked at him promptly, interested in why he felt moved to say that.  He liked to talk to her more than Scott, and especially more than Rouge or Bobby.  "Did anything change?"

            "…What's a phoenix?"

            "What?"

            "I've a heard of them, but what are they really?"

            The jet beeped and Storm was momentarily distracted, quickly modifying the controls and landing the jet in a rural area where it shouldn't be discovered.  "Why did we have to take this thing anyways?" Logan asked.

            "Hmmm?"

            "Couldn't we drive?"

            "…Wouldn't that take time?"

            Storm and Logan entered a small city near D.C.  They looked around, but neither of them really knew what they were looking for.

            "The Professor said we should try the 7-11," Storm suggested.  Logan entered and held the door for Ororo, but when he looked back she wasn't there.

            "Storm?"

            He heard muffled sounds from the Korean church yard around the corner and looked over.  He spotted Storm who was lying unconscious on the grass.  He jumped inwardly and ran over to her.  But before he got to her and leg came out of no where and snapped his head back.

            His claws were already out and he looked up, livid, but…He turned his head in curiosity at the site.  For a second he saw Lady Deathstrike, her metal nails ready to annihilate him, but then he saw what was really in front of him.  A young girl, no older than Rogue, who was holding a long hook and waiting for him to advance.  She did sort of resemble Lady Deathstrike, having the same complexion and build, jet black hair and similar eyes, but he couldn't shake the feeling of eeriness in his mistaking her identity.  In fact, the two even had the same blue, heartless eyes.


	4. Unburying the Dead

            "Wha-" Wolverine started, but Deja wasn't going to wait.  She faked right and then flipped to his other side, whacking his hip with her bo.  He growled and charged at her, attempting to 'claw' off her head.  But of course it didn't work, she was too fast for that.  She dipped as if in limbo and used his vulnerability, having his back face her, to her advantage.  She kicked him so he stumbled forward and in his moment of disorder she swung her bo high, and brought it down on his body with a gratifying thud.  She thought she heard the echo of metal but ignored it.  He actually fell down now, and she saw the blood spreading across his back where the hook had grazed him.

            The satisfied grin she carried disappeared when he turned around.  Anger, hate, all of these came flooding at her in an instant.  _Die, Die!  The Adamantium…_She blinked, distracted by strange memories.  He charged at her.  _He stuck the tube of Adamantium in her torso.  He tried to hit her but she dodged him.  _He watched as her cuts healed.  He jammed his claws in her.  She used his body to pull away.__

            Deja cried out and put her hands over her head, falling to the ground.

            Wolverine was about to strike again when he noticed how peculiar she was acting.  He hadn't really hit her yet and she was already in pain.  'This might be a trap.  She might be faking.'

            "No!  No!  I didn't mean to!" Deja screamed.  Logan had a feeling she wasn't talking to him and he observed, still alert.  "Please!  Please!  I couldn't stop myself!"

Deja shrieked, grabbing a spot on her stomach.  Her eyes opened and Wolverine's mouth opened slightly as he saw a magnificent display of blue-brown-blue-brown flip and swirl inside her eyes.  Tears started streaming down her face as she stared up at an invisible light.  A passionate sadness overcame her and Wolverine stepped closer, engrossed.  He lost his breath when he saw the way her tears reflected the light.  Again he saw Lady Deathstrike, the Adamantium pouring out of her.  And in a flash his vision was gone and it was Deja in front of him again, crying metal tears.

            Pyro's eyes closed tighter as he tried to remain asleep, but something was jabbing him painfully.  He looked up and a pipe was hovering in mid-air above him.  It curved into the words 'Go check on her.'  He narrowed his eyes, annoyed, at the pipe, but there was nothing he really could do.  Pyro got off of his the bunk-bed and walked down the rusty halls.  This was an abandoned prison by the Maryland side of D.C.  He observed the nasty jail, still curious at the dungeon features of it.  The prison had been abandoned since the county deemed it 'inhuman.'

            He walked up the stairs, which he still was timid about since the creaked weakly every time he stepped on them.  He reached the cell she was stored in and slid the door open.  Since it was a cell for isolation there were no bars.

           He stepped inside the room which was nothing more than a six planes of metal, one of the top, one on bottom, and four at each side.  He looked around, startled not to see her.  Then, once the realization of her escape set in, panic began to rise in his chest.  He looked behind him, as if expecting Magneto to be standing there, enraged.  He turned back and ran his hands hopelessly over the bare cell.  'What am I supposed to do?'

            Footsteps.  Magneto was tired of waiting.  'Oh, God.'  Magneto was almost there.  'Where is she?'  He was in view.  "Shit."

            "Well?" his European accent asked threw the penitentiary's silence.

            "Um-"

            "How is our little Crystal Ball?"  Magneto peeked into the cell, his face falling at once.  There was silence.  Magneto turned to Pyro was felt incredibly small all of a sudden.  "Where is she?"

            "Um-"

            "_How could she escape_?" Magneto hissed, fury dripping off every syllable.

            "I dunno!  How could I have stopped her?  She…just…disappeared!"

            "She can't disappear."

            "But she did!"

            Magneto evaluated the situation.  "It's the chemicals; the enhancers."

            "What?"

            "Dammit."

            Back in the abandoned, metal prison, the Brotherhood plotted their next move.  "You're certain she's with the X-Men?"

            "Yes," Magneto answered Mystique.  "Pyro…You need to retrieve her."

            "What?"  Pyro sat up, as he wasn't really paying attention.

            "The X-Men can't find her, and I think Charles might."

            "Why would they find her, specifically?"

            "Because Charles knows me too well."  And that's all eh would say.  John stood up, ready to leave.

            "Wait," Mystique called.  John held back.  "Erik, if she's already at the school-"

            "Than perhaps Pyro can enter inside and retrieve her.  They'll accept him back gladly."

            "Yes, but not without suspicion," Mystique reasoned.  She morphed into an innocent looking girl.  She had wavy, blond hair and soft blue eyes, with milky skin and subtle, pink lips.  She looked a bit younger than Pyro's.

            But disturbing her innocence was Mystique's evil grin.  "Let me go."

            Magneto had already accepted the proposition, though Pyro held some doubt inwardly.


	5. A Scuffle in the Woods

a/n-;)  this chapter just kept getting longer and longer (relative to my usual length) so I cut it short, working on the next chappy

and I finally got to the Pyro-Deja interaction…they don't' seem very lovey_dovery right now ^_-

            "What's wrong with her?" Ororo asked the Professor as he stared at the young girl on the medical table.

            "I'm not sure…"  He stared around, almost instinctively looking for Jean as she was the doctor.  But in the back of his heart, he had stopped grieving, for he felt some kind of assurance he couldn't explain.  (a/n-like how he looked at the end of the movie *smile 'yes I think everything's going to be alright')  "Would you excuse us?" he said softly, wheeling over to nearby Deja's head.

            "Alright," Storm answered gently in her South African accent, letting her hand rest on the Professor's for a few seconds, feeling his melancholy.  The Professor smiled as she left, the warmth of her comfort still lingering.  (ok last a/n-Where did her accent go? HMM!?)

            The Professor braced himself inwardly before he placed his hand on either side of Deja's head, lightly touching her temples.  He shut his eyes and worked his power from within, like conjuring up an unconscious skill.

            _Don't kill_ _me._  _Fire?  Please!  You're a mutant?  You're grandmother has gone missing.  __America__.  Stay here.  Shhh.  I don't want to.  Get off me!  Back, girlie.  These are your American relatives.  I don't want to die._

            The Professor jerked his head back, ending the connection.  He shuddered a bit until he was finally free of the fear in the girl's head.  He sighed, letting the adrenaline out, and began to reflect on what he saw.  He heard screams and shrieking.  He saw John.  He saw the underground base.  Magneto.  He saw the distant family welcoming her home.  Mystique.  The scar on her neck.

            Everything seemed to be out of order.  But the memory of when he awoke with his neural inhibitor came flooding up.  He remembered spotting the mutant Stryker controlled.  The scar on her neck.  The two memories were a match, and he looked back at the girl.  Why would she be remembering Yuriko Oyama?

            "Hey," Storm called softly.  Wolverine stopped and turned around to stare at her with a placid smile.  "You ok?"

            "Yeah.  You?"

            "It was only a tranquilizer, I'm fine.  You seemed the worse on the way home."

            "You were blacked out."

            She grinned at his skepticism.  "Not the whole time.  And I'm kinda glad I was.  Sedated, I mean."  Logan cocked an eyebrow, inquiring why.  "I saw Scott on the way back."  She smiled, but this time he saw her heart ache a little.  "He didn't look so…forlorn, for once."

            "Well, he was concentrating."

            "And that's a good thing, once and a while."  Logan joined Ororo is sad smiling.  "But I wanted to talk about you."

            "Why?"

            "You looked a little shaken."

            He stared at Ororo's strong, brown eyes.  He sighed a little, trying to think of words.  "I-"  Storm waited patiently, not pressuring him in any way, but only reassuring him with her subtle encouragement.  "I haven't thought that much…about that mutant I killed in the base."  Storm nodded.  "But, for the first time, I-"  He couldn't speak, and Ororo noticed the block in his throat.

            "It's ok.  You don't have to tell me now," she soothed, and she felt him admonish himself.

            Jubilee walked by the front door, humming the tune of a Beatles song which was stuck in her head.  As she put her foot on the first step to go to her dormitory, she froze, hearing someone knocking on the door.  She lazily went to open it.

            A mutant her age, with pale skin and strawberry blond hair entered.  "Hello," she cooed.

            "Anne?" Jubilee asked.

            "Who else?"

            "Send Mystique," Pyro muttered as he made his way threw the dense forest which surrounded the mansion.  "Sure, send her.  She can morph, which means she'll fit in perfectly at-"  He stopped, perking his head up.  He had heard a panicked scream.  It was from a girl.  He stared around the woods, now feeling a little scared himself.  But he felt more cautious than afraid; after all it was only a girl.

            He almost called out, 'Hello,' but knew that would just be the stupidest thing he'd ever done.  There were frantic footsteps coming towards him, crashing through the branches and swiping at the leaves.  He heard the girl making small struggled sounds at no one, as if she was running from something.

            He heard her pass him and quietly and quickly pursued.

            When the noises stopped he halted, trying to hear what was going on.  He waited…A twig snapped much father ahead.  Pyro suddenly realized that the person was escaping silently.  Forgetting discretion, he rushed ahead, pushing the brush out of his way.  Now he heard the girl speeding away and he growled, quickening his steps.

            Mystique, in the form of Anne McKenzie Thompson also known as Snowbird, calmly walked towards the kitchens.  She peeked inside and saw no one was there.  She slipped in and shut the doors carefully.

            Mystique worked quickly as to avoid being seen.  She opened the cupboard and pulled out six, two-liter sodas.  She placed what she had been holding on the counter.  She opened each carton and carefully poured eight pixie-sticks, aka sugar, into each of them.  When she was done she placed all the coke carefully back where it came from and snuck out with a wicked smirk on her pale face.

            "Anne?"  Mystique gasped, looking up.  A boy with silver hair was staring at her.  "What were you doing in the kitchens?  How'd you get here so fast?  You can't move that fast, only I can move that fast."  He spoke rapidly and kept changing positions, obviously restless.  "Seriously, there's no way you coulda got here so fast."

            Mystique threw her hair back as she walked past him.  "You have no idea."

            Pyro stopped, catching his breath.  'Where is she?'  He had a sudden thought.  'What if she's not the girl?  What if I've been wasting all my time, getting so far away from the mansion, on some regular mutant?  What if they know me?'

            His thoughts were interrupted by a thin branch suddenly slapping him in the face.  He staggered back and looked up.  There she was, holding a sufficiently think enough branch, out of breath as well and glaring at him.  "Stop chasing me!"

            She took off again.  "Hey!"  Pyro ran after her, putting all his effort into catching up.  Unfortunately, she was putting all her effort into making sure he didn't.

            Deja was running in big leaps, which would normally be difficult in such a thick forest, but she dodged everything that came her way.  When she landed, her arm picked up anything it could so quickly that it didn't slow her down one bit.  She threw them behind her, letting them smack into John.  This only maddened him.  She saw in another blue flash fire spreading on the tree in front of her.  'He would set the wood on fire?'  The thought puzzled her so much she paused, temporarily not thinking of escaping, and she felt Pyro crash into her.

            They thundered forward, his lighter falling in front of her face.  She snatched it and scrambled up before he could get a hold on her.

            They stared at each other like animals that circle each other before fighting.  Both of them equally furious at each other.  She threw his lighter on the ground, preparing to smash it with her foot.

            "No!"  He jumped at her, making them fall over again.  She roared, being brought down.  He ignored her under him and retrieved his lighter, but when he turned back to deal with Deja she swung her stick, exerting great skill for someone who was in a difficult position.  The blow sent him off of her, falling onto the nearby dirt.  She had a bo once again.

            He, facing the ground, turned around.  He yelled and rolled over, barely missing being walloped as Deja, with all her might, swung her bo down as hard as she could at where he was.  She tried again and he rolled to where he previously was, using the time she was preparing to swing to kick her leg, sending her back to the ground.  He tried to get up but she stuck out her leg so his foot tripped on it.

            Now they both got up, angrier if that was possible.  Pyro, a little more in control of himself now, remembered the reason why he brought tranquilizers with him.  He grinned, reaching into his coat pocket.  Deja was distracted by seeing herself grab her neck in her blue reality.  Back in the present, she figured out what was going to happen when he pulled out some sort of gun.  She fell straight down, spotting the darts go by where her neck was, but kicking her legs up as she plummeted to knock his gun and make it go flying behind her.

            "Why you little-"  Deja leapt back up and tackled him.


	6. Missing

            "Professor!"

            "Yes, Storm?" answered Charles, recovering from his headache.  He felt surges of energy surrounding him.

            "The children are acting…odd."

            "How so?"  He began to allow his mind to wander to them, as he had been concentrating on papers which had been a hard thing to do.  Usually he had no trouble concentrating.

            "They're hyper."  Storm was distracted by the sound of giggling children rushing past the office.  She turned back.  "It's not just that.  Some of them are having trouble controlling their powers.  Their energy seems…"

            "Yes," he interrupted.  "I see it now."

            'Anne' watched as some kids began to laugh themselves into a fit.  She saw the teachers trying to calm them down.  Even if it was Friday dinner, when the kids ate pizza and coke, they shouldn't be acting this hyper.  Mystique observed as she saw one kid loose control and the electricity went out.

            Mystique stood up, a little worried since she needed to use some electric transportation.  The generator kicked in however, and the little kid had fainted.

            Scott was walking down the underground halls.  He looked around, making sure no was around before he entered the medical lab.  Now inside Scott's peach skin turned blue and the form of Mystique smugly entered.  She looked around.  Where was Deja?  She considered tampering, but no one was thinking of Deja right now.  She had made the distraction.

            Mystique growled.

            Pro growled, trying to shove Deja off of him.  She rolled aside, grabbing her bo which she had dropped.  He was up.  He snatched her bo from her and bent low, swinging it in a circle so it should've crashed into her legs.  But she jumped, kicking him back and reclaiming the stick as it flew in the air.

            He dodged it as she tried to poke at his head and, still crouching, he tried to punch her stomach.  Deja, with a new idea vaguely formed in her head, took steps back.  She defensively moving away from him and he kept getting closer.  But her foot landed on the gun and the light in her eyes warned Pyro what she was trying to do.

            He swung at her head but she blocked and swung right back, using her martial arts training.  She only grazed him.  He took a powerful swing at her head but she snaked to avoid it and grabbed his outstretched arm with both hands, twisting it.

            Using his temporary pain she flew down, grabbing the gun and shooting it before she had much of a chance to aim.  It hit his arm, which he had been cradling.

            They briefly looked at each other, both a little amazed at Deja.  Then his vision went blurry and he slumped to the ground. Leaving Deja alone in the woods, out of breath and more paranoid then before.  Deja's mouth fell open.  She carefully got up, scared that maybe he would get up again.  But no, he looked pretty knocked out.

            Pyro groaned.  He put a hand over his eyes to block out the offensive light that was straining him.  His head throbbed with a dull ache.  He waited until he could sit up.  'What happened?'  Ah, yes, the memories began to reform.  He sighed in shame.  He had been beaten by a girl.  With nothing left but a slight headache, he got up.  She had escaped with her bo, his gun, and his jacket.  Looking around, Pyro noticed something else.  He glared at nothing, determined to get her back.

            "Excuse me."  Deja jumped.  She turned around.  "Do you have your bus fare?"  Deja stuttered at the driver, she had never ridden on an American bus before.

            "Bus fare?"

            "The money for your ticket."  The driver looked slightly annoyed.  "Do you have $1.10?" 

            Deja, who wearing Pyro's jacket to conceal the gun, searched inside the pockets.  She found eight pennies.  "Um."

            "Here, I'll pay for it."  Deja turned to see a young woman with short auburn hair and dark eyebrows.  She paid the driver $2.20.

            "Thanks," Deja said sheepishly, sitting next to the woman in the only spare bench.  The woman nodded.

            Deja, for the first time in a while, reflected on what happened to her.  She remembered the images of her grandmother.  With teary eyes, she realized that her grandmother, Yuriko, must have died.  Her parents died when she was twelve.  Her mother, the American ambassador to Japan, and her father had been assassinated.  She was sent to live with her grandmother.  Her grandmother had never dealt much with the government, afraid they would notice her ageless face.  She took Deja in, back then being known as Akira.

            Deja had been worrying about her for three years, trying to find leads on what happened to her grandmother.  Now she vaguely knew.


	7. Wanted

            "Erik?"  Magneto looked up, sitting on a bus stop bench.  He caught sight of Mystique in the blond girl disguise.  He turned back to watching for the bus.  "What are you doing here?"

            "I could ask the same thing for you."

            "I was going to the car.  She somehow escaped."

            "Did Charles find you?"

            "No, he's unaware."

            "Well, she'll be on the closest transportation."

            "How do we know what that is?"

            "We don't."

            Deja and the woman noticed the bus slowing down.  Deja felt as if a memory was flooding up, but she couldn't remember.

            "If we miss her, Pyro will find her."

            "He's here?" asked Mystique.

            "We should have known."  The two observed as the bus in front of them stopped.

            Deja looked as two people entered.  Her heart jumped, seeing the old man who drugged her and a younger, blond girl.

            The bus doors opened.

            'I'm trapped.'  Deja gasped, realizing it had been a vision.  She jumped up from the bench.  She turned, spotting an empty seat in the back of the bus, and scurried over.

            Magneto climbed up the stairs.

            Deja maneuvered passed the person who was seated closer to the aisle, against his will, and plopped herself down, ducking her head.

            Mystique joined him.

            The two mutants looked around the bus.  "Do you see her?" Mystique asked despairingly.  Magneto shook his head.

            They were sitting in the seat she had been just a while ago.  The woman with red hair had disappeared.  'Can they see me?  No.'  She spent the rest of the ride in silent panic.  But they couldn't see her, she _knew_ they couldn't.  She kept her head down and faced towards the window.  It was thirty minutes until Magneto and Mystique left.  Relief.

            "You might want to wake up."  Deja shut her eyes tighter.  "Wake up," someone whispered in her ear.  Her eyes fluttered.

            "Hi?" she asked innocently, asking 'yes' in Japanese.  Someone nudged her.  Warm air was being blown in her direction.  "Mmm," she groaned angrily.  "So tired."

            "Hey, girlie."

            Deja's eyes shot open, she saw the vision of someone looking at her.  She turned in her seat.  It was him.  It was that boy who tried to kill her so many times.  Her brain froze, not knowing what to do.

            "Give it back."

            There was an exit.  There was one behind her, on the back wall of the bus.  She must have fallen asleep on the bus.  Where was she?  There was an exit, she just knew it.

            "Now."

            She bit her lip, thinking of her chances.  The bus wasn't stopping.

            She bent a leg up real close and shot it out, managing to kick him into the neighboring row, Pyro being too surprised to react.  She bolted out of her seat and pulled on the emergency exit of the bus.  "Hey!" the driver yelled.  The door flew open and she leapt out, rolling on the ground to avoid injury and getting back up a car hit her.  As she streaked away she didn't know where she was going, all she knew is that it was away.

            "Wait!" Pyro yelled after her, stopping at the new door in the moving bus.  The driver slammed the breaks, and Pyro was thrown off it.

            Deja ran into a back alley, spotting a dumpster.  'Why did he come after me?  _Give it back_.'  She dug her hands into his jacket and pulled out his lighter, which she stole.  'Did he come back for this stupid thing?'

            Pyro, a little battered from his fall, ran into the alley after her, stopping as he spotted her holding the lid of a dumpster open.  "You're lighter is in there," she said in her accent, slamming the lid shut and escaping.

            "Hey!" he half-yelled.  Running towards the dumpster and opening it.  "I can't believe I'm doing this."

            Deja whipped off his jacket, throwing it on the ground just after she removed the gun.  If only she hadn't thrown the bo away before she entered the bus.  She wasn't good with guns.  She also kept his lighter, which she hadn't thrown in the dumpster like she said she had.

            _I don't want to die_.

            She threw off the memories and kept running, trying to find a way out of the allies and back into the street where she could blend in without his jacket.  'How am I supposed to hide this stupid gun?'

            She paused, trying to choose which path.  She knew one led to a dead end, and one led to the street.  'Which one?  Why can't I see?'  She looked from one to the other desperately.  'Which one?  Which one?'

            "Hey!"  Her eyes darted back but returned to the paths.  The boy must have chosen to leave his lighter.  She sensed him stop behind her, out of breath.  "Listen, you-"  She turned around and fired the gun emotionlessly.  "WOAH!"  He dodged it again.  She growled, shooting twice more only to have him evade the darts.

            "Why won't you die!?"  She wanted a bo.  She looked around; there was only trash and old newspapers.  'Fine.  I'll fight him with my hands.'

            "Now,_ listen."  His mouth fell open as she bound forward.  Her hands started swishing around him, striking him again and again.  "Get off!" he snarled, trying to lock her hands.  He caught one but she moved with what seemed to him as unnatural speed.  She managed to bend around him as he still gripped her hand so it twisted his arm.  'Once again, I'm getting my ass kicked by this fucking girl.'  She snaked out of his grasp and started great kicks.  Pyro had seen ninja movies, but he had no idea how to fight someone like this._

            They were distracted.  "Pyro," someone called.  It was a somewhat female voice, but strange to the ears.

            "Here's your stupid lighter!" Deja hissed, hurling his lighter as far as she could in the opposite direction and choosing the left path.

_            "Deja?"  Deja stopped her running on the crowded street.  "Deja?"  She looked around and saw the woman who paid for her.  "Deja, they want to help you?"_

_            "Them?"_

_            "No, them."_

            Deja's twitched.  She had been running on a crowded street, but she halted due to some weird daydream.  Just then a voice entered her head.  "Deja.  Deja, it's ok.  We're not trying to hurt you?'  She threw her hands on her head.  How could someone be talking to her?  'Deja.  Over here.'  Deja looked up.  She saw a man in a wheelchair staring right at her from across the street.  She didn't know why but she was drawn to him and she quickly crossed the road.

            "Who are you?"

            "I'm Professor Charles Xavier.  I tried to give you medical attention back at my school.  Before."

            Deja couldn't think.  There were too many thoughts.  Too many memories that didn't belong to her.

            "Deja, I believe there could be something dangerously wrong with your powers.  Connected to whatever happened in the prison."

            "How do you know?" she whispered, her mind becoming foggy.

            "I can offer protection from the mutant that's been chasing you.  Magneto."

            'The boy is Magneto?  _You can trust me._  No, I can't.  Yes, I can.  No.'  Deja shuddered as the thoughts started to become wildly disorganized.  She shut her eyes.  'Let it pass.'

            In a moment the mental collapse receded and she could think again.  She looked back at the blunt mutant in front of her.

'We're here to help,' he whispered in her mind.  She watched as other mutants joined him.  Astonishment, fear.  She saw the mutant that killed her, no the mutant hadn't killed her.  He had killed her grandmother.  He killed Yuriko.

"You," she hissed, stepping away.

"No, Deja, you don't understand," Charles said, suddenly seeing a little of what was going on in her mind.

"_You_."  Deja looked at the mutant in the wheelchair.  Charles felt waves of hatred fall on him as her eyes looked at him, feeling as if he betrayed her.  She was deceived.

And with that she began to run again.  Always running.

Storm was going to go after her but the professor held her back.  "No, Storm.  Not yet.  I have to face her one on one."

Pyro watched her from a distance, Magneto and Mystique behind him.  He flicked his lighter open, then shut.  Magneto spoke.  "Mystique, you and I need to distract Charles.  Then again, this one doesn't seem to be able to catch a little girl."

"I can do it," Pyro said with new resolve.  "And I will.  Today."

"Fine," a tired Magneto sighed.

Deja held back the drained tears as she kept running.


	8. A New Enemy

Deja stopped running.  She panted quietly, trying to think.  Yukiro would have known what to do.  She hated herself for not knowing.  She never knew what to do, even when Yukiro was teaching her.  Deja didn't have a clever and sensible instinct.

'Who was that man in the wheelchair?  He had been so bizarre.  What am I supposed to do?'  She knew how to fight.  She knew how to run.  She even knew how to wheeze silently for safety.  But she didn't know how to react to whatever life threw her.  And she knew those people would be after her again.  Her foster family must be worried.  They would have called a search by now.

'Of course!'  Exactly!  Deja kicked herself mentally for not seeing this.  'Go to the police!'  She stopped panting with her new determination and decided to set off.  But first, she needed a direction.  'Where's a police station?'  She saw an approaching cab.  "Taxi!" she yelled, waving out her arms and successfully catching its attention.  It pulled up on the sidewalk next to her and she got in the back seat.  "To the police station, please."

"That'll be $10.60."

Deja stared.  "Now?"

The driver actually didn't care, but now he grew concern.  She was nervous; probably didn't have the money.  "Yes.  Now."

"Um…"

"You don't have the money, kid?  Get outta here."

"No!  Wait.  Um…Do you have-I mean do you know where the station is?"

"What, you gonna walk?"

"Yes, I-I need help.  Just tell me where it is!"

"Tell ya what.  I'll drive you for $5."

Deja was touched, but she still didn't have the money.  She wished she could have given him the money, but she just couldn't.  "I-I-I-"

The driver sighed.  She seemed so helpless and nervous, in an innocent and heartbreaking way.  He wanted to drive her, but no exception.  "Sorry, kid.  You're on your own."

"Can you just tell me where it is?"

"See that road?  Walk down it 'till the fifth light.  Then take a right.  Right again, then go straight 'till the next light where you turn left.  It's right around there."

"Thanks," she mumbled, distracted by the looming task of walking all that way.

"Logan?"  Wolverine didn't hear Storm's gentle voice.  "Logan?"  He stirred.  Looking up he saw the soft smile of Ororo.  "Is everything alright?"

He felt a shiver subside.  "Whatya mean?"

            "Well.  You seem a little…distant."

            Wolverine sighed.  He stared at the front of the jet.  Scott was busy piloting the plane.  Professor X and Nightcrawler were sitting close behind him, apparently not listening.  He craved talking to Storm, letting everything out, but felt some kind of restraint holding him back.  He tried to talk her remotely anyways.  "Well…it's not easy being called a murderer."

            Ororo nodded subconsciously.  She thought that was bothering him, but he acted so tough most of the time she couldn't tell.  "Logan," she said in her lovely accent, "She's confused.  The Professor can't even make much sense out of what he saw in her mind.  All we know is something's wrong with her gift…which is related to time."  She watched as Logan blew her words off.  She reached out a soothing hand on his.  "I was once told that bad memories stand out more than the good ones.  Maybe, for the moment, she can't see any good.  But we can show her."

            Logan's stubborn eyes looked back at her peaceful ones.  He gave her what would be a smile for someone else.  "…Thanks."

            "In time, wounds heal."  They both knew what she was talking about.  "When you're ready, you can begin."

            "I know," he countered quickly, unable to hold down his words now that she put attention on the unspoken matter.  "But I feel like…I just can't let go.  Like it's not real.  It hasn't registered.  I just-"

            The two suddenly noticed that Kurt had stopped his droning prayers.  Their words had been carrying quite easily in the silent jet.  The dead stress hung in the air, and tension was practically emanating from Scott's determinedly quiet face.

            "Excuse me," Deja said timidly, finely reaching a police station.  The guard at the desk looked up skeptically at her.  Deja faltered, unsure of what to say.  "Um-"

            "Do you have an emergency or complaint?" the guard asked.  Clearly she was uninterested.

            "People are chasing me," Deja mumbled out.

            "What?"

            Deja smacked herself mentally.  What a stupid thing to say.  "Has an Akira Oyama been placed as missing?"

            The guard typed the name into her computer.  "Oh."  Deja tried to peek over curiously but the guard threw her back with a cold stare.  "Please stay right here."  She left, leaving Deja shaking with unease.  The guard came back, but with a middle aged man in a trench coat walking behind her.  "Right over-"

            "Yes," the official said confidently.  "I'll take it from here.  Miss, would you please come with me."

            As the guard came over from the counter and placed a firm arm on Deja's she gave the female cop a desperate look.  "What?"

            "Don't worry, Miss everything is perfectly fine."

            "No.  Wait-What's going on?"

            "_Miss_."  Deja finally stopped struggling and looked at the cold eyes of the official.  "I'm taking you to your family.  They're worried sick."

            And with that Deja was ushered out of the station into a car.  Looking around she noticed it didn't look like the cop cars she'd seen.  She didn't know it, but it was a Lincoln.  The official gestured her into the back seat while he assumed the seat next to her, the driving being taken care of by a chauffer.  Before the man had actually gotten in, Deja felt the door beside swing open and a pair of strong arms fling themselves around her neck, dragging her out while using her for a shield.  She didn't scream of instinctively kick out, but she did get distracted with the barrel looking her in the face by the cop.  The driver spun around and shut at whoever had her, almost deafening her.  She was thrown to the ground while a blast of hot air went past her.  'Oh God,' she grimaced inside and the person dragged her up.

            "Come on!" she heard him yell.  And the vision of an explosion told her to follow him.  They ran for a few seconds before she felt the heat explode and again her ears shut themselves.  The fire maneuvered around them miraculously and she felt the boy's hand pulling her.  He opened a building door and waited for her to go in.  What was he thinking?  She turned to run back and see if the officer was ok.  "No!"  The hand pulled her back and when she looked at him she saw something in his eyes she hadn't seen before.  "You gotta come with me, they'll kill you."  Deja threw him off again.  She turned and saw the blazing fire.  The man and the driver had to have died.  Unless they escaped?  She saw the other policemen piling out into the parking lot in awe and horror as the sound of a fire truck already grew in the distance.  She felt the boy come beside her.  "We've been trying to protect you from these guys."  He waved at the fire.  "They're who kidnapped your grandmother."

            Deja looked from his eyes to the flames licking the black smoke.  "Bullshit."

            Pyro nodded.  "Ok.  Maybe we have our own interests in protecting you.  But they did take…Yur-e-ko.  Yur-e-ko Oya-mama."  Deja shook her head at his awful pronunciation.  She currently felt no threat from him.  A vision was coming to her of being shot at.  "Listen," Pyro distracted her.  "I can't make you trust me.  But you never actually stuck around to see what we're doing.  It's not torture.  It's not death or experimentation.  We're fighting a war.  Against these guys."  He waved again at the destruction.

            Deja's mouth dropped and Pyro looked to see what she was gaping at.  The man who tried to take her away was emerging from the wreckage.  Completely unharmed except for the ash covering him, he walked boldly out in front of them.  "Shit," Pyro hissed.  The man held up a gun similar to Pyro's.  "Run!"  Deja didn't need him to shout that, she was already sprinting.  The two teenagers turned.  Deja was ready for another run.

a/n-add a trench coat and you know they're bad, or unbelievably cool like in the Matrix; I really wanted to post this so the mistakes are numerous, I'll fix it tomorrow, everything's tomorrow,; plus I'm completely pro Nightcralwer+Storm so no Storm+Wolverine loving going on; just a very intimate friendship 

a/n-I also know Deja was kind of acting unnaturally nice to Pyro in the end, well there's an explanation just wait 20 more chapter (jk)


	9. Talking

a/n-yes a bit of delay, sorries.  Due to techinal difficulties 1) my computer crashed for the 4thbillion time 2) since it crashed all my sketchy pre-post dejaness was deleted ;( 3) even w/ barely nothing loaded on it my computer is acting v. slow for some reason 4) laziness –this may but be a technical difficulty but hey- 

            "What was that?" Deja asked while running.  Pyro stopped.  He took out his lighter and a wall of flame separated them from whatever was chasing them.  The two had been running in an abandoned apartment complex for some time.  "I do not think that will stop it."

            "Shut up."  Pyro wouldn't admit it, but he was a bit panicky.  Magneto had warned him if he came across an agent to run like hell.  (a/n-it's not a Matrix crossover)  "Shit."  Deja spotted an open window a bit above the ground.  She decided to split and began to climb out of it.  Now that she had seen less of the enemy her alliance with him was fading away.  "Woah! where do you think you're going?"  Pyro grabbed her leg as she was almost out.

            "What you doing?" she hissed, muttering in Japanese.  "Get off!"

            "Why won't you just stop?"

            "Why won't you!"  She jerked her leg out violently.  It freed her from his grip but also sent her tumbling out of the window unexpectedly.  She threw her arms back but she was facing the wrong way and her back crashed unto the dead grass below her.  She had only been around one story up but it still smashed into her.  After all, it was like falling out of a small, two-story house.

            Pyro's mind slowed as he saw her fall.  Her scream brought him back and he took a small jump to reach the window and peer out.  "Akira, move out of the way."  He jumped, not waiting for her to move but she rolled in time.  "Here."  He propped her back up and placed her carefully next to him.  Her slit eyes were shut and she seemed to forget he was her enemy as she groaned.  "Are you ok?"  She cursed at him in Japanese.  "Akira-"

            "It's Deja," she whispered.

            "What?"  Her eyes closed peacefully and he realized she fell unconscious.  "Akira?  Or…Deja?  What?  Akira?"  She slumped into his arms.

            Pyro didn't know what to do.  He was about to move her hair out of her face when he heard the agent.  He froze, knowing he was out of sight but didn't know if that mattered.  The agent's footsteps crossed his fire and marched onwards, missing the teenagers outside the window.

            It was a few seconds before Pyro carefully got up, dragging Deja up.  How was he supposed to carry her to safety?  She looked pretty light.  He paused, trying to think of the easiest way to hold her.  Throwing her over one shoulder would probably be least painless for him, but he didn't feel right about it.  He decided to go the customary way and hold her with one hand supporting her back and the other supporting the curve at her knees.  It wasn't as hard as he thought; she was very wispy for a girl who kicked his ass so many times. "Come on."  

            Magneto waited for Mystique's report.  "They were at a police station.  It seems an agency car was blown up."

            "Then they're after her already."

            "Would should find Pyro, he's probably with her.  The agent will be-"

            "Yes, I know."  Magneto cleaned his nails lazily.  "Come on, we better hurry.  The agent is going find them sooner or later."

            Deja awoke with no headache, only a small pain in her back.  She couldn't remember what was going on, which was an odd feeling.  She had a great memory.

            She sat up.  She was in a helicopter.  That boy was beside her.  'Oh, crap.'  Now she remembered.

            "Akira?"

            "That's not my name."  She passed out again.

            "Deja?"

            Deja opened her eyes.  With a small, dull pain in her head she saw Pyro looking at her from inside a cell.  She was back in the abandoned prison.  After seeing what awaited open eyes, Deja decided to close them again and try to block out reality while she listened to the boy talk.

            "Deja's your name right?"  She nodded softly, oddly calm.  She supposed they drugged her this way.  So many drugs, and she was the only one of her friends who didn't try pot.  "How'd you get a name like that?"  She wouldn't answer him.  She may be their prisoner but she wasn't going to say anything personal.  If he wanted to play friendly, a friendly thing to do would be to set her go.  He waited.  "Ok…You don't have to talk to me.  But can you tell me your power?"  Still nothing.  "Not going to answer a single question, are you?"

            "Answer mine."

            "Fine."

            "Are you going to let me go?"

            Pyro sighed at the nasty question.  He was hoping for something a little easier to respond to.  "Well…"  Deja's heart dropped.  "I'm not sure.  I barely know what going on, I'm just a lackey."

            "If you can not answer, I can not as well."

            Pyro hissed impatiently.  "Alright…Now remember, I'm not really sure.  But Magneto said that as soon as we predict the attack we'll have no need for you.  You can probably go after that."

            Deja felt that something was wrong.  The attack.  Yes, she had a vague memory or vision of it in a way, absorbed from someone else.  It was too vague to think of, only strong enough so she could recognize and feel the subconscious urge to be afraid.  "Tell me about the attack," she whispered in thought.

            "No.  You tell me what's your power first.  I know it has to with predicting and everything…or something.  I mean just explain it to me."

            "Tell me about the attack."

            "That wouldn't be fair."

            "My being here is not fair."

            That caught Pyro off guard.  He felt guilt in his chest for some reason and couldn't look at the peacefully indignant Deja.  Her eyes weren't even open and yet the stabbed into him.  He found a spot on the ground to concentrate on and speak to.  "I'm not sure if I should be doing this."  She let the silence persuade him.  "There is this…order.  It's like an organization against Mutants.  It isn't a company, or a government supported branch even though the government does fund it.  But the funds go under the table so this Order is able to do illegal things without anyone noticing or caring…They want to destroy us…all of us.  And they've found ways to use our own kind against us.  That was an agent back there.  Mutants who have been forced to work for the Order are agents."

            "What sort of illegal things?"

            "For example, experimenting on your grandmother."

            "…She was experimented on?"  Deja only saw and felt things of her grandmother's past.  She still didn't know the story.

            Pyro nodded, even if Deja's eyes were closed.  "Yes.  And forced to work for them.  She killed mutants, but mainly she acted as some sort of guard dog for William Stryker."

            'I hate that name.'

            "Stryker was on the worst until we chained him and left him as good as dead."  Memories were again rising up in Deja.  She tried to them back.  "He's dead but there are plenty more like him…just as ruthless, heartless…horrible."

            "Adamantium?"  Pyro looked curiously at her.  "What happened with this Adamantium?"

            "English isn't your first language is it?" he asked, noticing her taking time to say everything and set up sentences in her mind.

            "Hence, the accent," she said sarcastically, sounding more American.

            "And yet you use words like hence."

            "I know what I hear."

            "I knew you had some Japanese in you, Yuriko Oyama was Japanese.  But still, you don't look…"  She bit her lip, being reminded of one of least favorite subjects.  It was hard being half-white in a country full of people who weren't.  "Well I would think you would have been raised in American, that's all."  Deja almost told him about being raised by Yuriko, but why should she tell him?  "See…We're fighting the Order that's ruining our lives, our existence, our _kind_.  Can't you just stop fighting and join us?"

            "Thank you for the invitation."  Pyro looked back at the ground, bothered.  He had asked Magneto why they just didn't invite Deja.  Magneto for some reason had rejected this suggestion.  Looking back up Pyro was surprised to see soft, brown eyes staring kindly at him.  "I don't feel well."  


	10. Hiretsukan

He smiled sympathetically.  "Sorry."

"No," she repeated.  "I don't feel well."

"Well then," he said, turning around and out of her sight.  "You won't refuse this then."  He came into view holding up a brown, food bag, marked by a red dragon.

"Of course-Chinese food for the Japanese girl."

"Why not?"  He took out one of the boxes and slid it through the metal bars along with some utensils.

She received them hesitantly.  "How am I supposed to eat this by using a fork and a spoon?"

He paused, getting out his own food.  "Oh, I forgot to ask for chopsticks."  He ignored her disheartened face and got out the last item.  "Here."

She picked up a small box and opened it.  "Zen Calendar."  She looked up at him.  "Thank you for these nice, stereotypical gifts."

"No problem.  Besides, maybe a calendar can help you.  After all, I still don't know what you can do."

Deja sat quietly in the farthest corner of her cell.  She could hear the boy's breath, deep and unrestrained as he slept.  She looked over her empty, food box, tiny remains of sauce staining the bottom.  Then she picked up her calendar and read the first line.  "'Merchants-Who will buy this hat, glazed with snow? –Basho.'  What the hell does that mean?"

And, interrupting her silence, a door unexpectedly banged open.  She jumped, hiding her calendar behind her back as blue feet walked down the stairs before her.  The woman walked by without even glimpsing at her although Deja trailed her coldly.  "Erik and I are leaving.  We'll be back in eight hours."

"Why?"

The woman walked back across the cell and before turning she glanced at Deja and grinned.  Deja stood up abruptly and ran at the bars.  "WHY YOU MUST KEEPING ME HERE?" she shrieked out, forgetting to grammar-check her own words.

Mystique didn't answer and started walking up the stairs.  She called out to Pyro, "Don't get in trouble."

"You bitch," Deja sighed in despair as she slid down the cell.

Pyro stood awkwardly, looking at Deja crumpled at the bottom of her cell.  

John tried to fight off the real world and stay inside his dream.  He was looking at a sky just before daybreak.  The blue was renewing, special.  But, the growing noise brought him back.  His eyes flicked open unhappily.  For a second his brain slowly translated the sound into information.  He walked over to Deja's cell where she was lying on the ground, moaning.  "What's wrong?"  She hissed more Japanese at him.  He stared around uncertainly and back at Deja who was now clutching her stomach.  "Are you hungry?"  She shouted sharp words at him but lapsed into desperate whispers.  "What is it?"

"You wouldn't' know."

"Why not."  She answered in Japanese.  "You're not being very helpful."

"I'm sick."

He turned away skeptically.  "With what?"

She took a moment to think about what those words meant.  "Sick with time."

"What?"

"I don't want to tell you."

"Fine."  He sat down stubbornly, dwelling on her words.  That it dawned on him that she could be cramping.  He looked back at her.  "Are you…"

"Go away."

"Do you want food or something?"

"I want you to burn in hell."  He settled on the cramping theory.  He twiddled his thumbs uncomfortably, wishing she stop groaning.  "What will it take for you to go to sleep?"

"Your head on a silver platter."

"How eloquent."

"Ooo, the boy knows a big word."

"Will you go to sleep?"

"Anki."

"I don't speak Japanese by the way."

"It's a medicine.  Anki."

"Where do you buy it?"

"At Akutsu-san's."

"Where's that?"

"By the school you kidnapped me from."

"That's an hour away."

"Oh, will it take an hour out of your rolling social life."

"'Rocking' social life."

"'Ro-king' social life," she corrected.

Someho, Pyro had been coaxed into buying her a bottle of Anki.  After guilting him and assuring him her note was not a emergency letter, he was off.

"If it's not an escape letter, why don't you write in English?" he had asked.

"The old women doesn't speak or read English."

"How will I get through to her then?"

"The note says 'I need to buy Anki for my girlfriend.'"  She had looked up and seen his expression.  "You can't say sister, she probably doesn't have any Japanese-speaking, white customers.  That would take too much explination.  Unless _you need Anki-"_

"Give me the note…How do I know it says that, though?"

"What am I going to ask them?  Come save me?  They don't know me.  Who in their right mind would save someone they don't know?"  Pyro had been swayed by this remark.  That's how he thought, and he was glad to know there was another teenage who felt the same.  "Here.  See this?" she had pointed.  "These characters mean 'I need'.  This means 'wa', this means 'ta', this means 'shi'.  'Watashi' means 'I'.  These characters say 'hiretsukan.'  That means 'girlfriend.'

            "But all that for 'I'?"

            "For me just get Anki and I won't bother you again."  After he had closed the door she had muttered, "You dead hiretsukan."  For, 'Hiretsukan' actually means 'jackass.'

a/n-ooo!  Maybe from the last line you can gather that the note doesn't mean what she says it means!  That remark would work better if you could hear my tone of voice, which is like Strong Bad's.  Go to homestarrunner . com slash sbemail57 (h t m l   too, I know that was messed up but FF won't allow links)  If you're a download junkie like I am, download 'Boys Don't Cry' by Plumb cause it's my Déjà vu theme song.  Review and love me! The huge absence is partly due to my 'go to the Philippines and miss a huge month of school' trip.


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